escape is never the safest path
"any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - arthur c. clarke
i got to spend a few minutes tonight video-chatting with nate "young neef" wright. he's in singapore, literally the other side of the world. this is not hype for os x - although the ichat+isight combo worked flawlessly, it could have just as easily been done with skype and a $30 webcam. this is hype for bob metcalfe, vint cerf, tim berners-lee. this is the first time i have felt genuinely grateful for technology.
sure, i've used this global telecommunications network hooked up to a disgustingly fast number crunching machine with a well-tailored human interface since i was twelve - i have had net access for more of my lifespan (15 years) than not having it (12). i've used it to learn more, buy things faster, open the door for self-expression in a way i never thought i would. i have expertly masqueraded a vast social awkwardness by communicating more and more through a text-based medium.
but i was able to sit and have a real conversation with my friend on the other side of the world. i have talked recently about the tragedy of losing touch, and so moving towards closer connections is a huge blessing.
sorry to go so sentimental on you. hey speaking of the brilliance of the intarweb, i think firefox 2.0 will be public by tomorrow morning - it was downloadable most of the day today. it breaks a couple of worthwhile extensions but the improved interface is slicker and smarter, and the improved RSS support is long overdue and well-done. if you've downloaded IE7 in the past week, make up for your grave error.
bill moyers podcast from the 18th was quite interesting regarding the development of the connection speeds in america compared to the upload/download capabilities of the rest of the world. Also included the discussion of how the baby bells dropped the ball in bringing more to our doorstep.
Evidently they have fiber in korea and japan at $40 a month. WTF? Korea? Really?
And of course the issues the cable and phone companies have with communities being proactive in getting this themselves is ridiculous. It's an hour and a half long, but well worth the listen if you're stuck in a car for 10 hours.
Right on Bragg. The worst is that the Clinton administration gave them a ton of cash to bring our system up to speed and they did jack with it.
In other news, you should listen to the most recent inside the net podcast, it has an interview with the firm that designed the ui for firefox 2.0.
Evidently the baby bell's regulators dropped the ball bc they were their own regulators. And that happened about the same that the companies changed policy which required them to invest their profits back into their infrastuctures. Since they no longer had to do that, and profit became unlimited to them, they have crawled at providing the services they touted in the 90's.
What's even more hilarious is when the municipalities and the small townships make strides to update themselves in the super highway of information, the cable and phone companies push their large pocket lawyers in the way and argue that unfair competition is taking place. I can't really do it justice, but the small town in Louisiana they use as an example is filled with enough information to make one want to firebomb a cable/phone company. *sigh*
Dude, he's in Singapore? I might be travelling there soon, how long is he there?
end of february, not sure of the exact date...
Ryanham, I'll be here until 21 Feb (sans some traveling here and there around Asia). Let me know when you are looking at coming, would love to see you and show you around!